HUERFANO- The heavy rains that have brought relief to the County also created a mudslide which closed Highway 160 Monday afternoon.
Located near the Malo Vega fire site of several years ago, a 100-yard wide slide buried both lanes and closed the highway for over four hours. No vehicles were caught in the slide, and no injuries were reported. Cleanup of the slide was completed shortly after 8 pm.
The National Weather Service indicated that between one and a half and two inches of rain fell between 1:30 pm and 4:30pm over the still-denuded mountain slopes where the 2006 Malo Vega fire scorched almost 12,000 acres, leaving the slopes open for runoff.
An earlier, smaller mudslide had closed the highway briefly in 2007.
On a related note, with the pass closed and people stuck for several hours, La Veta restaurants and shops did a booming business on Monday catering to the stranded travelers.
